White-rot

fungi have unique ability on lignin degradation by producing ligninolytic enzyme. Some species of white-rot fungi prefer to degrade lignin than carbohydrate (hemicellulose and cellulose), such as
Pleurotus loridanus. Oil palm empty fruit bunches has been pretreated using P. loridanus. Addition of kation (Cu2+) on biological pretreatment reduced lignin content and increased digestibility of the empty fruit
bunches. P. loridanus reduce lignin and hemicellulose content from 23.9% to 10.1% and from 20.8% to 16.9%, respectively. P. loridanus did not degrade cellulose. Cellulose content of empty fruit bunches
increase from 40.4% to 51.7%. Crystallinity of empty fruit bunches reduced after biological pretreatment. Crystallinity presented as LOI (lateral order index) of un-treated and biological pretreated oil palm empty
fruit bunches are 2.08 and 1.44 Digestibility of the empty fruit bunches increased from 17.2% to 60.3% by biological pretreatment.
Keywords: biological pretreatment, oil palm, empty fruit bunches, biofuel, white-rot fungi, lignocellulose, Pleurotus loridanus
INTRODUCTION
30

Indonesia is the largest producer of crude palm oil (CPO) in the world. Indonesia produced 120 million
metric tons of oil palm fruit in 2010 and accumulated 27.6 million metric tons of unused oil palm empty fruit
bunches (OPEFB)[1]. OPEFB is containing high lignocellulose and high polysaccharide. OPEFB provides enough
potential sources of fermentable sugar for biological conversion and other lignocelluloses base derivate products
[3-5].
However, OPEFB has low digestibility. Hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass is prevented by linkage
between lignin and carbohydrate, crystallinity and degree of polymerization of cellulose, and content of
hemicelluloses [6,7]. The breakdown of the lignin barrier is necessary since the lignin protects the cellulose from
an enzyme attack by pretreatment technology, such as biological pretreatment that employs microorganism, such
as white-rot fungi .
White-rot fungi are known as the most ef icient microorganism in lignin degradation . Some species of the
white-rot fungi selectively degrade lignin and hemicelluloses more than cellulose and leave a cellulose-rich
residue . This results in cellulose that is unprotected and easier to hydrolyze. This study relates to the eects of
biological pretreatment of OPEFB using Pleurotus loridanus under solid-state fermentation. Dry weight loss,
compositional, and structural changes of the OPEFB were discussed.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Dry weight (g)

25

Control

20
Cu

15
10
5

0
Time (days)

Figure 2. Changes in the OPEFB components of (a)hot water soluble,

(b) hemicellulose, (c) cellulose, and (d) lignin during the biological
pretreatment using P. loridanus without nutrient addition (
),
2+
2+
with Cu (
), and with Mn (
).

Figure 1. Decrease of the dry weight (ODW) of the OPEFB

during the

pretreatment using P.
loridanus LIPIMC996(
) Control: without


2+
nutrient addition. (
) Cu: addition of Cu . (
) Mn: addition of
2+
Mn .

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

A. Substrate Preparation and Biological Pretreatment of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches
Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB), obtained from the local oil palm mill at DolokSinumbah(North
Sumatra, Indonesia), was used as the raw material in this research. The OPEFB was sun-dried and chopped to get a
homogenous size of 12 cm. The biological pretreatment of the OPEFB using P. loridanus LIPIMC996 was carried
out in a series of 300 mL glass bottles. Fifty- ive grams of dried OPEFB (51% water content) was placed in a glass
bottle and 30 ml of medium (contain Cu2+) or distillate water for control was added. The bottles were covered and
autoclaved at 121C for one hour. The bottles were inoculated with eight pieces ( 10 mm2) of mycelia mats that
were cut from the plate cultures. Each culture (bottle) was incubated at 30C for dierent periods of time, i.e., 0, 7,
14, 21, 28, and 42 days. At the end of the incubation period, the fungal biomass was removed from the substrate as
completely as possible, and the solid residue was dried and analyzed for total solid content, hot water soluble
(HSW), lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose. The structural component of the dried sample was analyzed to
determine if there were any possible changes. All treatments were carried out in triplicate. The average values for
each treatment are presented in the data.

A. Eect of biological pretreatment on lignocellulose component of the oil

palm empty fruit bunches
The initial content ofOPEFB is presented in Table 1. The biological
pretreatment of the lignocellulosic materials degrades the solid components
into less complex structures, water-soluble materials, and gaseous products. It
is generally observed that biological pretreatment resulted in the reduction of
the oven dry weight (ODW) of OPEFB (Fig 1.). Biological pretreatment reduce
all component of OPEFB except cellulose. Biological pretreatment reduce lignin
and hemicellulose content from 23.9% to 10.1% and from 20.8% to 16.9%,
respectively. P. loridanus did not degrade cellulose. Cellulose content of empty
fruit bunches increase from 40.4% to 51.7% after biological pretreatment.

Table 1. Initial lignocelluloses content

of the oil palm empty fruit bunches

Components

Lignin
Cellulose
Hemicellulose
Hot water soluble
Ash
Water content

Contents (%)
23.9 0.028
40.4 0.002
20.1 0.001
14.5 0.001
1.2
0.032
51.1 0.182

The fact that the addition of cation (Cu2+) accelerates the degradation of most of the components in the
lignocellulosic materials by fungi has also been observed in other works . The addition of cation can induce and
control the ligninolytic enzymes production, resulting in the improvement of the lignin degradation. The cation
can aect the ligninolityc enzymes activities .
B. Structural changes and crystallinity of the oil palm empty fruit bunches
Biological pretreatment altered the physical characteristics of the OPEFB, by turning its color from dark
brown to a lighter color, and it became more brittle and easier to grind. The color change may be used as an initial
indication of the lignin reduction or removal.

B
Figure 3. Visual changes of the OPEFB from (a) before the biological



pretreatment and (b) six weeks after the biological pretreatmentwith
the P. loridanus .

The structural changes of the materials were analyzed using the FTIR, which re lects the changes in the
functional groups of the OPEFB. The peaks of the IR Spectrum at certain wavelengths could be lower, higher, and/or
shifted, which indicates the alteration of certain functional groups associated with that wavelength. The intensities
of the C=O stretch in the un-conjugated ketone, carbonyl, and ester groups at wavenumbers 17391738 cm-1,
mainly from the polysaccharides, were signi icantly reduced after the pretreatment with the Mn2+ addition and the
Cu2+ addition. In this peak, there may be linkages between the lignin and the carbohydrate . The degradation of the
hemicellulose and the lignin as well as the break linkages between the carbohydrate and the lignin by the fungi may
contribute to the reduction of this peak.

Fig 1. General step of biological pretreatmeng of oil palm empty fruit bunches
using Pleurotus loridanus.

D. FTIR Analysis
The structural changes of the OPEFB after the pretreatment were observed based on the changes in the IR
spectra. The IR spectra measurements were conducted using the FTIR spectrometer (Impact, 410, Nicolet
Instrument Corp., Madison, WI), a resolution of 4 cm-1 in the range of 600 to 4000 cm-1 and controlled by Nicolet
OMNIC 4.1 (Nicolet Instrument Corp., Madison, WI)[38] and analyzed using eFTIR (EssentialFTIR, U.S.A.).
E. Stastitical Analysis
Statistical calculations were performed with SPSS software (Statistical Product Service Solutions, Chicago,
IL, USA). All data presented as averaged value. Linear correlations between degradation of the lignocelluloses
component were examined by Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT). Subsequently, an analysis of variance
(ANOVA) was applied to determine if the data series presented statistical signi icant dierence.

Figure 5. FTIR spectra of the biologically pretreated OPEFB without

the nutrient addition for 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days.

Figure 6. FTIR spectra of the biologically pretreated OPEFB with the
CuSO4 addition for 0, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days.

The crystallinity of cellulose could be predicted using the intensities ratio of certain bands at the IR spectra, which was A1418/A895
known as the Lateral Order Index (LOI) . The LOI value of the biologically pretreated OPEFB is shown in Figure 8. The crystallinity of the
cellulose decreased during the pretreatment. Meanwhile, the decreasing rate for the OPEFB pretreated with the Mn2+ and the Cu2+ addition
was higher than for those without the cations addition. As indicated by the FTIR analysis of the cellulose IR band, although there was no
signi icant degradation of the cellulose, the structure of the cellulose could be changed, such as its crystallinity.
2,5
70

60

1,5
1
Control

0,5

50

Digestibility (%)

C. Enzymatic Hydrolysis
The untreated and pretreated OPEFB were hydrolyzed using a commercial enzyme (Cellulast, 64 FPU/ml
and -glucosidase 58pNPGU/ml, Novozyme Co.). The enzymatic hydrolysis was performed on the ground material
(40 mesh particle size), using the modi ied NERL method [36].A total of 0.15 g of total biomass (dry weight basis)
was hydrolyzed with an enzyme dosage of 60 FPU/g substrate of cellulase and 64 pNPGU/g substrate of glucosidase in 50mM sodium citrate buer pH 4.8, and supplemented with 100 L 2% sodium azide as an
antibiotic. The total volume of the hydrolysis mixture was 10 mL. All samples were shaken at 50C for 72 h and then
iltered using a crucible ilter. The aliquot obtained from the iltration step was then used for the sugar analysis. The
mean and standard deviation were presented.

Laleral Order Index (A 1429/A 897)

B. Lignocellulose Analysis (Chesson-Datta Methods)

The characterization of the raw materials and the pretreated OPEFB was performed according to the
Chesson-Datta methods . The chemical components of the samples were fractionated step-by-step to various
components, as illustrated in Figure 10. The weight loss during every fractionation step gives the weight fraction of
the major lignocellulose components: water-soluble, hemicelluloses, cellulose, and lignin. The dry weight was
determined after drying the samples at 1053C for 24 hours, according to the standard test TAPPI T264 cm-97.

Cu

40
30
20
10

Control

Cu

14
Days

21

28

Figure 8. Lateral Order Index (A 1429/A 897) of the un-pretreated

and biological pretreated OPEFB using P. loridanus.

14
21
Time incubation (Days)

28

35

Figure 9. Hydrolysis yield of the OPEFB samples biologically

pretreated using P. loridanuswithout the nutrient addition (control),
with Cu2+, and with Mn2+.

CONCLUSION


The P. loridanus LIPIMC996 used in the biological pretreatment of the OPEFB selectively degrades the lignin, hemicelluloses, and
HWS, but not the cellulose. There is no correlation between the cellulose degradation and the dry weight loss, which implies that the fungi
used in this work does not degrade the cellulose. The analysis of the FTIR spectra reveals signi icant changes in the OPEFB in its functional
group in various regions, mainly the syringyl and the guaiacyl units of the lignin. Although there was no signi icant degradation of the
cellulose, structural changes in the cellulose were observed using the FTIR spectra and could imply a reduction in the crystallinity. The
degradation of the lignin and the hemicellulose and the reduction of the cellulose crystallinity may contribute to the improvement of the
OPEFB digestibility.

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